This weekend I forgot SOTA activities, devoting free time to operate the special callsign AO150ITU, which conmemorated the 150th anniversary of the International Telecommunications Union. The callsign was active along all the weekend from friday 15 22:00 UTC to Sunday 17 23:59 UTC. as many other 150 callsigns around the world did.
During this time, an automated slotting system was made available at the FEDIEA ham radio club webpages. On these, you were able to schedule your activation slots, while being member of the club.
So, I set up the home rig, N1MM contest soft, transceiver, key, antenna and fridge and started transmision on the very friday night. On saturday and sunday afternoons, Marcial EA2BDS came home to enjoy some hours the experience of being on the other side of the pile-ups.
As the King of Spain EA CW contest was running at the same time, I was asked frecuently to give the contest exchange, and sometimes the people didn't understand my answers at abt 32 wpm...
At the end, and after working +- 10 hours, CW only, 1660 QSOs were made, including 80 DXCC entities and several 150ITU special callsigns around the world. Good practice for the SOTA pileups!
